But that was a good thing. WWBPA Advisor and Past President Ken Carlson organized a bike advocacy event in his new hometown of Somerville, Massachusetts. The challenge was for a cyclist, a T-rider (subway), and an auto to race from Davis Square in Somerville to Kendall Square in Cambridge. Ken drove the car.
The cyclist finished first, in 20 minutes. The T-rider came in second, in 29 minutes. Ken drove the course in 32 minutes. (And yes, Ken usually bikes to work.)
New York City did the same contest this week (after all, it is National Bike to Work Week) and once again the bike won.? The cyclist traveled from Williamsburg to SoHo in morning rush hour in 15 minutes. The subway took 26 minutes and driving, 41 minutes.
As for West Windsor? Think how long it takes you to drive all the way around the station to the Vaughn Drive lot (unless you’ve been commuting so long that you have a Wallace Road permit) and to walk to the platform in the morning, and then to get out of the Vaughn Drive lot and over the roundabout on the way home. Your bike would be right by the tracks and probably would get you home in a similar amount of time, no sweating involved. And let’s not even think about the time you spend (or intend to spend) at the gym doing cardio. Then the bike will surely win!
Read more about Ken’s race at?Metro.US?and Boston.com, and tell us about your bike commute.
WZBN reporter Rose Eiklor interviewed Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and WWBPA President Jerry Foster and 2nd Vice President Alison Miller. The broadcast was on December 6, 2011.
Jerry made the case for a revised plan: “While the new plans will allow pedestrians to walk along Route 571 much more easily due to the new sidewalks, they won’t be able to cross as easily. And it’s not enough, in our view, to be able to just walk along a road; we’ve got to be able to cross it safely as well. Any median or refuge island that goes in the middle would be a huge improvement to being able to cross the road safely. The other main thing that we’re looking for is less speed through this section of our ‘Main Street.'”
Alison continued:
There also are many, many commuters who will cross right here [the intersection of Route 571 with Wallace/Cranbury], because this is the way to the train station, and it’s expensive to buy a parking space, especially when you can walk. And commuters are always in a hurry, and we’re very concerned about commuter safety.”
Mayor Hsueh worries that any changes in the design at this point will require the Township and County “to go back to square one again…I have reservations about [their design], because they didn’t know that we’d already discussed with County about those concerns. But County…also has certain kinds of ground rules regarding a county roadway, and we have to compromise with them.”
The mayor continued: “The speed limit is decided by the state DOT, so my feeling is, once we have this design done and once we have people riding bicycles around, [there will be] opportunities we can request for reevaluation of the speed limits, and there are technical standards–it’s not even political negotiations, it’s all based on statistical analysis.”
Commenting on the YouTube site, WWBPA trustee Chris Scherer notes, “It is not financially or socially responsible to implement a ‘ solution’ that requires rework to be considered safe and effective.”
Dan Rappoport leads a tour through the Pine Barrens
The 2011 Tour de Pines, sponsored by Pinelands Preservation Alliance, celebrates Pinelands Month in October with five consecutive single-day bicycle tours of the New Jersey Pinelands. The aims are to highlight the natural and historic features of the one million acres of the Pinelands and to encourage New Jersey residents to get out and explore this unique environment. The Pinelands, an area of 1.1 million acres in our densely populated state, is the largest surviving open space on the eastern seaboard between the northern forests of Maine and the Everglades of Florida. Ghost towns, historic sites and legends such as the Jersey Devil preserve the Pinelands? unique culture, telling the many stories of how humans have used and depended on the natural world around them.
The 2011 Tour de Pines will begin on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at PPA’s Bishop Farmstead in Southampton Township, traverse the length and breadth of the Pinelands National Reserve, and culminate at Whitesbog Village on Sunday, Oct. 9.
Each day?s tour will range from approximately 40 to 55 miles per day, with average speeds of 11-13 mph, and begin and end at the same location. Registration deadline is Oct. 1. You don’t need to do all the rides. Plus it’s free! Just provide your own transportation, food and lodging as needed.
It seems counterintuitive. You’d think that riding your own bike would be safer than riding a shared bike. But that’s not the case. In Paris, London, and Washington, D.C., fewer people are injured when they use the new bike-sharing systems.
In London, no one was seriously injured or killed on the first 4.5 million trips on what the locals call Boris Bikes (Barclays Cycle Hire system), while about 12 people are injured for every 4.5 million trips on personal bikes.
And in D.C., the same thing happens: “While only seven bike-sharing riders were injured in 330,000 trips, on average, 13 people riding personal bikes are injured over the same number of trips. And bike-sharing riders suffered no serious injuries, while riders using their own bikes suffered injuries that were sometimes serious or even fatal.”
So why does this happen? Professor Norman Garrick of the University of Connecticut speculates that it could be shorter trips on shared bikes. Professor Ian Walker of the University of Bath (England) suggests bike-sharers might be less experienced and “stick to safer cycling behavior,” or they “could be more dedicated cyclists with an above-average skill level.” Garrick adds that the shared bikes themselves might be a factor, since they’re more visible (often bright red or yellow) and slower.
Three Chinese citizens are cycling across the country, from New York City to San Francisco, to highlight the plight of artist and activist Ai Weiwei and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, both imprisoned by the Chinese government.
The cyclists stopped in Princeton on Friday evening, June 17, and spoke with people on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon Streets.
They hope to collect more than 10,000 signatures asking for the release of the two imprisoned men. The letter will ask United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to address “the Chinese government?s serious and on-going human rights violations against its own people.”
To read more about the “Cycling Tour for Human Rights of China,” go to?the?Initiatives for China website.
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Want to cover New Jersey from north to south? Interested in a great, long ride in part of the state?
WWBPA member Dan Rappoport has mapped the routes for you. Dan got the idea for the project about three or four years ago, but started creating the cue sheets in earnest two winters ago.
The New Jersey Bicycle Route goes from Belvidere, near the Delaware Water Gap in the northwest, zigzagging to Cape May Point in the southeast in nine days. Daily distances vary from about 44 to 74 miles, with each day?conveniently?ending at a motel.
Dan also developed a New Jersey Bicycle Route Network of rides all around the state, with ways to avoid congested highways in densely populated parts of the state as well as routes in beautiful, rural settings. These rides range from 40 to 188 miles, though one could, naturally, break them down into smaller segments.
Dan also compiled a Bicycle Touring Resource Guide, including NJ DOT tours; New Jersey multi-use trails; Cycle Jersey 500 itinerary; cross-state, state-wide, multi-state, and regional bicycle routes and books.
We hope you’ll try some of these routes. Thank you, Dan!
Hoboken has been named a Gold-level Walk Friendly Community! Only 11 cities received the designation, and Hoboken ranks near the top. In October we reported on Montclair and Hoboken earning Bicycle-Friendly honorable mention from the League of American Bicyclists.
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC), funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, introduced the Walk-Friendly program to encourage communities to make walking safer and to encourage families to be more active, with a goal of improving health and reducing our need for fuel.
Walk Friendly Communities (WFC) is a national recognition program developed to encourage towns and cities across the U.S. to establish or recommit to a high priority for supporting safer walking environments. The WFC program recognizes communities that are working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort.
What’s your suggestion for making West Windsor more walkable?
Wednesday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.
The Nutley Museum
65 Church St., Nutley, NJ 07110
The book (128 pages; 70 photos) provides an extensive narrative on the history of cycling in the Garden State–beginning with the formation of clubs in the 1880s; to regional cycling activity in Trenton, Asbury Park and?Plainfield; to the era of grand velodromes in Newark and Nutley; and concluding with the current Tour of Somerville. It also features details on the careers of golden-age cycling heroes such as Frank Kramer, Alf Goullet, A.A. Zimmerman and Willie Honeman.
For more bicycling history, join us for a ride along the Henry Hudson Trail, with a stop at the Metz Bicycle Museum on Sunday, June 5. For more information and ?to RSVP, click here.
Join us for a bike ride along part of the Henry Hudson Trail, beginning and ending in Marlboro,?with a stop in Freehold for lunch and a tour of the unique Metz Bike Museum, housing more than 2,000 items, including 125 of the rarest bicycles, childrens’ antique toys, gadgets, and mousetraps! If there’s time, we may check out some Springsteen sites in town.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
11 a.m. to about 3 p.m.
Cost: $10 adult (children under 12, $5) for admission to the museum. We’ll collect cash on the day.
RSVP: wwbikeped@gmail.com. We must know how many people will join us, as the Metz Bicycle Museum tour requires at least six people and can only handle a maximum of 30 people at a time.
Meet at 11 a.m. at the Bicycle Hub bike shop in Marlboro, where you can park you car. We estimate the route is about 8 miles each way.
The Bicycle Hub of Marlboro is located on State Highway 79, one mile north of County Road 520 (toward Matawan)?in Marlboro township. When using a GPS type navigation system use “239 State Highway 79, Morganville, NJ 07751.
Join us April 9 ?from 10 a.m. to noon, when Bike New York comes to Train the Trainers for our West Windsor Bikes: “Lose the Training Wheels” session?at the Farmers’ Market on May 21,?when we’ll teach children to ride bikes without training wheels.
We’ll start our training session at the West Windsor Library and then head outside. Please email us at wwbikeped@gmail.com so we can know to expect you and contact you if plans change because of bad weather.
Click here to read about the Balancing First Method.
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The guide, created through a contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is intended to give Safe Routes to School practitioners, teachers, school administrators and others the necessary background information to fully understand the positive benefits of teaching bicycle and pedestrian education in the classroom, and to provide these audiences with easy access to currently available curricula. The guide and its accompanying inventory are organized into descriptive categories that will help in choosing the right curriculum for specific classroom needs.
Sean Mellor of?BicycleRadio.com interviewed U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday, March 1. Listen to the interview on the secretary’s blog, fastlane.dot.gov.
LaHood discusses the 2012 budget, with a proposed increase in the transportation portion of the budget. LaHood emphasizes livability issues, multi-modal transportation, livable communities, walking and bike paths. He also discusses his campaign to end distracted driving.
On March 3, LaHood spoke before the Senate Budget Committee about President Obama’s 2012 budget proposals.
LaHood’s message was clear: “It?s essential to America’s economy that we find a way to repair our national infrastructure where we must and build for the future where we can.”
He said that “to spur new business and produce new jobs, we must … invest in .. .bike paths that make our streets more livable.” We heartily agree.
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We’ve spotted a couple of Mercer County Community College?summer programs with biking and hiking themes:
Among the 2011 Summer Sports Camps is Mountain Biking Camp (co-ed, ages 8-16)
July 25-29 / August 8-12 This camp focuses on some of the fundamental skills required in cross country mountain bike racing as well as the mechanics and general maintenance of bicycles. Campers will learn skills associated with mountain bike racing such as proper body position for maximum balance and control while navigating through narrow trails and terrain. How to properly go over obstacles such as small log climbs. Along with these skills campers will also learn proper racing etiquette as well as how to take care of their bike with some basic maintenance.
For more information, go to Mercer County Community College Youth Summer Sports Camps or call 609-570-3779.
For those interested in more traditional bicycling and in hiking, there’s?Camp College, which offers Friday Fun Days,?with this one: Bike & Hike (AGES 9-13)
July 29,?8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Enjoy a day trip to Mercer County Park where we will ride the trails and experience the beauty of the area on two wheels. We?ll explore the red, blue, and yellow trails then find a shady spot for our picnic lunch. Before we hit the dirt we will have a brief overview of bicycle safety, trail riding, and bike maintenance. You must provide your own bike, lock and helmet (No open toe shoes).?Tuition and fees: $60
For more information and registration, go to?Camp College or?call 609-570-3311.
West Windsor-Plainsboro Community Education presents a Roadside Bicycle Maintenance ?class this spring.
This 90-minute class will give you the confidence to take that longer bicycle ride. You will be introduced to basic tools and equipment and how to use them: how to repair a flat tire, how to re-install a chain,?how to overcome a bent wheel on a ride (to get you home), plus have your questions answered.
Instructor: Van Delfino, Bicycle Rack, Hightstown
1 class on Monday, ?April 4th 7-8:30 pm
HS South Room 900C $20
How many crashes have you had where your helmet prevented a more serious injury?
1 crash – 31%
2 crashes – 27%
3 or more crashes – 20%
I’ve crashed, but my helmet never touched anything – 16%
I’ve crashed, my helmet hit but did not help prevent a more serious injury – 1%
I’ve never crashed – 4%
The results are from about 2,200 responses to the ?January 13, 2011 question:
The NJDOT just published (only online) the New Jersey Bicycle Manual. It’s not just for kids, either. Here’s a list of the covered topics, from the table of contents:
Selecting, Fitting & Equipping Your Bike
Quick Maintenance Checks
Off to a Good Start
Traffic Basics
Sharing the Road
Parking Your Bike
Difficult Situations
Riding at Night & in Rain and Snow
Riding with Others
Riding on Shared-Use Paths
NJ Bicycling Law & Roadway Restrictions
Traffic Signals, Signs and Road Markings
The manual includes lots of clear diagrams and photos to help cyclists navigate in a variety of situations (even how to share the road with pedestrians and horseback riders).
This is an excellent resource for both novice and experienced cyclists.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Newsreports that the Alexander Road S-curve reconstruction, with safer pavement and bike lanes, will begin this spring:
According to Brian Aronson, the township?s assistant manager of engineering, utility relocation along the S-curve is currently taking place. ?Construction activities have ceased until the early spring,? he said.
The work was triggered by an accident on the S-curve in September, 2005, that killed Rebecca Annitto, of Princeton Township, just before her 15th birthday.
The Township Council awarded a $769,000 bid for the reconstruction project in September. It also approved a $35,000 contract with Remington & Vernick Engineers for professional engineering services for the project.
West Windsor received three bids for the project, ranging from $769,096.50 to $879,269.17, when it opened the bids in July. Lucas Construction was deemed the lowest responsible bidder and was awarded the contract.
The project includes widening the road to 38 feet, with one lane of travel and a five-foot bike path in each direction. Features of the new road included elevation of the roadway to create a banking effect, use of high friction pavement, and improved striping and signage. The estimated cost of the project is about $500,000, with $190,000 in funding from a Department of Transportation grant.
The project is estimated to take 60 days to complete.
The WWBPA has long been advocating for modifications to the S-curve and held a fact-finding and informational “West Windsor Walk” in September 2006 to draw attention to conditions.
The U.S. Department of Transportation posted its 2010 Record of Accomplishment, and the WWBPA sees some good things in it. Highlights include anti-distracted driving regulations and encouragement for more transportation opportunities. In particular, it helped level the playing field for bicyclists and pedestrians. This is a big accomplishment, particularly as some think bicyclists and pedestrians could lose out in some of the new Congress’s budget battles (see this analysis from the League of American Bicyclists).
Here’s some of what DOT did, in its own words:
In March 2010, DOT formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities to integrate the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians in federally-funded road projects. DOT discouraged transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians and encouraged investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.? Such recommendations include treating walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes, ensuring convenient access for people of all ages and abilities, and protecting sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected.? Through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grants program, DOT funded major projects across the country that allow Americans to safely and conveniently get where they need to go on a bike or on foot.
One of the TIGER grants “will repair, reconstruct and improve 16.3 miles of pedestrian and bicycle facilities that will complete a 128-mile regional network in six counties around Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey,” including the Schuylkill Trail, with artist’s rendering above.
Volkswagen would like to encourage creative thinking to change people’s behavior. Its website?TheFunTheory.com “is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people?s behaviour for the better.”
This year’s winner of the Fun Theory Award is Kevin Richardson for The Speed Camera Lottery, which turns a gadget aimed at catching speeders into one that rewards those who follow the rules. Here’s the premise:
Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? The idea here is capture on camera the people who keep to the speed limit. They would have their photos taken and registration numbers recorded and entered into a lottery. Winners would receive cash prizes and be notified by post. Better still, the winning pot would come from the people who were caught speeding.
Mark your calendars! Bike New York’s TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour is Sunday, May 1, 2011. Registration begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 1. If history is any guide, it will sell out within days.
Last year 32,000 people participated in this 42-mile tour of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and?Staten Island that lets you cross the Verrazano Bridge on a bike. There will be riders of all ages and abilities — and bike traffic jams. So if you sign up, be prepared to be extra attentive to what those around you are doing.
Monthly meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month via Zoom due to Covid. We will eventually resume meeting in the West Windsor Municipal Building. Email us at wwbikeped@gmail.com if you would like the Zoom code.
Find us at the West Windsor Farmers Market (Vaughn Drive parking lot) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Saturday from May through Halloween.
But that was a good thing. WWBPA Advisor and Past President Ken Carlson organized a bike advocacy event in his new hometown of Somerville, Massachusetts. The challenge was for a cyclist, a T-rider (subway), and an auto to race from Davis Square in Somerville to Kendall Square in Cambridge. Ken drove the car.
It seems counterintuitive. You’d think that riding your own bike would be safer than riding a shared bike. But that’s not the case. In Paris, London, and Washington, D.C., fewer people are injured when they use the new bike-sharing systems.
Three Chinese citizens are cycling across the country, from New York City to San Francisco, to highlight the plight of artist and activist Ai Weiwei and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, both imprisoned by the Chinese government.
To read more about the “Cycling Tour for Human Rights of China,” go to?the?Initiatives for China website.
Hoboken has been named a Gold-level 
Join us April 9 ?from 10 a.m. to noon, when 
West Windsor-Plainsboro Community Education presents a Roadside Bicycle Maintenance ?class this spring.
The 
Mark your calendars! Bike New York’s TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour is Sunday, May 1, 2011. Registration begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 1. If history is any guide, it will sell out within days.